Monday 2 November 2009

River Severn and Offa's Dyke

These photo's I took on Saturday about one mile from my home. The river is the Severn and the 'mound' (in the second photo down) is Offa's Dyke.



It was an unseasonably warm autumn day with the temp around 16c (61f) rather than the average for this time of year of about 12c (54f).
For those who don't know, Offa's Dyke was a ditch/earth mound that was built by King Offa of the ancient English kingdom of Mercia. It was built around about 785 AD and was designed to keep the marauding Welsh out of Offa's kingdom.
Apparently it was originally about 90 ft wide and about 25 ft deep/high and used to stretch about a couple of hundred miles long but now only something like eighty miles of it is left. As you can see from my photo what's left is little more than a grass mound but in some areas it's a bit more impressive.





9 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Looks like a good place to photograph wildlife Jim.

JPT said...

Warren: Yes, I'll take my zoom next time!

Anonymous said...

That is a big ditch to be digging by hand.

ADRIAN said...

Good series, thanks.

geraldgee said...

Like those photos,very dramatic,at first I thought some were monochromes

holdingmoments said...

Looks a beautiful area Jim.

CherryPie said...

Lovely sky and water reflections :-)

Anonymous said...

The photos are breathtaking. Brilliant post.^^

Life in Egypt said...

I wonder if the King was into dykes.
I wonder if the dyke knew the king was going to name a mound to keep the marauders out.
I wonder if his father king Thingfrith new his line was about to be distinguished.Just Joking!
Love the history of the dyke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offa_of_Mercia